By U.S. State
By Country
Antiques
by Sarah (VanderMolen) Sundt | Oct 14, 2013 | Placeless
About two years ago, I realized that garage sales were not worth my time. Estate sales were the thing. Estate sales had quality merchandise. Entire walls of blue Mason jars. Complete sets of dishes and silverware.
Parental Shutdown
by Melissa Dykhuis | Oct 13, 2013 | Placeless
TO BE (hopefully) DISCONTINUED.
Twentynothings
by Abby Zwart | Oct 12, 2013 | Placeless
I really hope thirtyandfourtysomethings don’t think I’m a promiscuous, drunk, hopelessly romantic, lazy, clueless, emotional wreck.
Not Another Twilight
by Elaine Schnabel | Oct 11, 2013 | Indiana
How do you teach a classroom of sleepy freshmen that feminism is about equality, not (necessarily) bra-burning? That making fun of someone denotes privilege, not power?
Dogged
by David Greendonner | Oct 10, 2013 | Placeless
Then one night in April Brett called his own bluff and showed up, straight from an Amish farm, with a puppy.
Basketball
by Bart Tocci | Oct 9, 2013 | Placeless
I’m getting better at b-ball, but it’s in the same way that I’m getting better at kite-boarding, pogo-sticking, goat-milking, or anything else that I never practice.
Harvest
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Oct 7, 2013 | Hungary
Another kitchen sunrise in a land of bread but no bagels.
Let’s Go Exploring
by Josh deLacy | Oct 6, 2013 | Nebraska
I saw a 1958 Chevy Cameo last weekend. For those who don’t know your classic vehicles (like me), a 1958 Cameo looks like that picture on the left. Old trucks don’t normally get me excited, but this one had exactly 1.3 miles on its odometer. Fifty-five years old, and...
Discern [My] Own Adventure
by Alissa Anderson | Oct 5, 2013 | Indiana
Discernment is hard work. I wish it were as easy as marking off a checklist. The hard part is the careful self-examination, the perseverance, the curiosity, the strain to hear that still, small voice.
What Men Live By
by Lander Hultin | Oct 4, 2013 | Placeless
A parable offers you truth, but not directly. You have to work for it or, rather, you have to want it and want it as if you were in the story.
Scattered Moments
by Sabrina Lee | Oct 3, 2013 | France, Italy
In the past month, I have slept in nine different beds, only three of which I consider (or considered) mine. I have traveled by plane, train, and automobile. And bicycle.
Habit
by Jacob Schepers | Oct 2, 2013 | Placeless
Small children are creatures of habit. Having been in the parental mindset for three years now, I’ve learned to stay on this side of sanity’s fine line by joining in (read: giving in) to these routines.
On Authorship
by Amy (Allen) Frieson | Oct 1, 2013 | Placeless
Even the fan mail we receive from young readers seems odd—I’ve never been interested in meeting or corresponding with the writers of books I love.
Sabbath
by Kyle Sandison | Sep 30, 2013 | New York
In the space of just a few steps along this sidewalk, the whole of New York seemingly faded away, while this courtyard remained set apart, consecrated, holy.
Cooked
by Stephen Mulder | Sep 28, 2013 | Placeless
For I, dear reader, have a confession: I never learned to cook. Or bake, or grill, or fry. Like not ever. Like not at all.
Bringing Vince Carter to Church
by Brad Zwiers | Sep 27, 2013 | Placeless
This tension comes from the American obsession with performance. The public wants an aging athlete to keep playing, but only if they can still perform.
Work It, Don’t Twerk It
by Griffin Jackson | Sep 26, 2013 | Placeless
This month, I celebrated my one-year anniversary of post-education employment. By “celebrated” I mean I told the dentist that I’d been at my job for a year now and then he gave me some free floss.
How I Plan on Surviving Graduate School
by Bethany Tap | Sep 25, 2013 | North Carolina
A month into graduate school, I have decided that I need a pep-talk from myself. Hopefully, this is either amusing or helpful to others.
Holy Matrimony, Batman!
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Sep 24, 2013 | Placeless
I’ve been to thirty-three weddings and counting.
I Must’ve Skipped a Step
by Jenn Langefeld | Sep 23, 2013 | Illinois
Did I miss something when I grew up? Was there some native knowledge dancing on the polleny wind that somehow blew past me (because I was inside with a stack of library books)?
Questions, Answers, and Reasons
by Robert Zandstra | Sep 22, 2013 | Oregon
The importance of questions and reasons (beyond answers) was emphasized to me recently by reading two poetic works respectively about Thomas Becket and Thomas Cranmer.
A Lost Art?
by Libby Stille | Sep 21, 2013 | Placeless
So that’s why I want to write more letters. In fact, I think everyone should, at the very least so that Norton Anthologies will continue to publish authors’ handwritten correspondence well into the future.
Small Talk
by Calah Schlabach | Sep 20, 2013 | Placeless
small talk greatly ups the chance that I will be asked the following dreaded question: “Do you have any siblings?”—or one of the many variations this question can take.
A 30-Day Quest
by Mary Margaret Healy | Sep 19, 2013 | Pennsylvania
So, now that it’s September and I’ve got my novel-planning materials out, I’m looking forward—in my patented, heady and mystical way—to the winnings I plan to claim this year.
Ode to Joy
by Matt & Laura Hubers | Sep 18, 2013 | Placeless
But why is it always about the “joy” of homeownership? It’s true—when you buy a house you have to be prepared for the issues that come up.
Dynamic Equilibrium
by Geneva Langeland | Sep 17, 2013 | Michigan
Ecologists hold that patches of land, when stripped of vegetation by natural or human processes, recover by shifting through a fairly predictable series of plant and animal communities.
Riding in Buses with Strangers
by Andrew Knot | Sep 16, 2013 | Austria, Hungary
Fifteen minutes before you arrive, your Eastern European neighbor takes a pickle out of a paper bag and starts eating it. That’s strange, you think, but it looks good.
Mere Atheism
by Will Montei | Sep 15, 2013 | Placeless
We must all humble ourselves when engaging with others in conversations surrounding belief of any sort, because in the grand scheme of things, we know nothing.
Where is God?
by Sarah (VanderMolen) Sundt | Sep 14, 2013 | Placeless
I wanted my career to be challenging. I wanted to do something that seemed to be helping the screwed up world we live in. But I’m having a hard time getting back into this mindset.
Neon Gray
by Melissa Dykhuis | Sep 13, 2013 | Placeless
I don’t want to be so black and white that I miss the nuance of the Creator’s world, and of what he’s doing in it. But I’m not going to blend into the gray background of ambivalence.
